History
In the Beginning
The first mention of Rainham in the Diocesan archives comes in a report, dated May 8th 1923, following a visitation of Gillingham by Bishop Amigo where Canon Thomas McMahon was parish priest. Bishop Amigo writes:-
“I am very pleased that we have been able to help by giving the site for Rainham. You have a monthly Mass at Mr Lynch’s and I shall be glad if you can arrange for one every Sunday for a time, letting me know after a few months whether it is worthwhile continuing.”
The site given for Rainham, quoted by Bishop Amigo, is the same plot on which our beautiful church, dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, now stands. The Conveyance of the plot to the Diocesan Trustees is dated 31st October 1921; and shows that the plot, measuring 200’ by 108’ was bordered on the Rainham side by land owned by the Rainham Tennis Club and on the Gillingham side, by land owned by a Miss Blinman. The purchase price was £270. There is no record to show whether Bishop Amigo’s request for a weekly Mass to be held in Rainham was met but on May 9th 1927, Fr Gerald Quinn, the assistant priest at Gillingham, sent the following letter to Bishop Amigo:-
“My Lord Bishop,
Last September I submitted to your Lordship a plan for Mass at Rainham. You told me to wait for some decision concerning Naval Chaplaincy. On the presumption that that question is now shelved I beg to submit another plan for Rainham.
After a long time I have been able to secure (provisionally) a hall for Sunday mornings at a rental of 3/- (15p) per Sunday. The Hall is the property of the Rainham Brotherhood an undenominational collection of laymen. They use the Hall on Sunday afternoons for a lecture or some sort of a vague semi-religious service.
The Hall will seat about 70 people. It is very quiet and in the most convenient part of the village.
In my opinion, (and that of the Canon) it is perfectly suitable for Mass. The Canon has given the scheme his benediction and I shall arrange as not to throw any extra work on him. At a conservative estimate, we shall get a congregation of at least 50.
Parts of Rainham are 4 miles from here, and the Bus service is inconvenient and expensive.
The Catholics in Rainham will be deeply grateful if your Lordship will grant permission to say Mass in this Hall every Sunday.
With apologies for my handwriting.
I am, my Lord Bishop,
Yours obediently,
Gerald R. Quinn.”
The Rainham Brotherhood’s Hall was demolished a long time ago to make way for new housing; but it was situated in Church Lane, which runs alongside St. Margaret’s Church.
From the time Mass was celebrated weekly in Rainham, the Mass count figures were shown under a separate heading on Gillingham’s returns. Fr. Quinn’s expectation of an attendance of at least 50 people was a little on the generous side but each and every following return showed a small but significant increase.
In November 1931, Mr and Mrs A Callahan and their little daughter, Theresa came to live in No. 2 Salisbury (then Hamilton) Avenue. The site for St. Thomas’ Church had been left quite untouched and was nothing more than a field where Theresa remembers playing and making daisy chains; and even, at times, sharing the field with a pony. We now know this little girl as Theresa Smith, and her continuous, and integral association with the parish has made for a valuable source of information in the preparation of this booklet. Theresa remembers going to Mass in the Rainham Brotherhood’s Hall: where, because it was not a place specifically dedicated to Catholic worship, Mass was preceded every week with The Asperges.
The Church Hall
For some years before his retirement, Canon McMahon had been in failing health (as implied by Fr. Quinn in his letter to Bishop Amigo); but by 1932 the Canon had retired and Fr. ‘Tommy’ Scott arrived to commence his 31 years as parish priest of Gillingham.
The Notice Book for Rainham was opened on June 18th 1933. On that day, the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, there was to be a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament in the Convent grounds at Chatham at 3.00 p.m. The second collection was for St. Bart’s Hospital, and the Building Fund collections the previous week had amounted to 4/6d (22p).
At that time, the weekly collections seldom exceeded £1 and were often quite a lot less. Whist Drives, of which there were many, would raise £3 on most occasions and raffles were held on a regular basis. A ‘sale of work’, held in October 1934 made a profit of £68; but this would have been a joint Gillingham/Rainham venture and would have been held in Gillingham. All money raising events would appear to have been held in aid of the Building Fund.
During the summer months there were many coach outings to places like Tankerton, Hartley, Faversham and Canterbury. The cost for an adult was usually in the region of 3/- (15p), and for a child 2/- (10p). Again, these outings would have involved both Gillingham and Rainham.
A very influential figure in those early days was undoubtedly a Mr John Clarke. Although Mr Clarke taught at St Michael’s School in Chatham for 42 years in all, and was Headmaster from 1920-1946, he lived in Rainham at “St. Theresa’s”, 90 Twydall Lane, and was at the heart of all decision making here. It was Mrs Clarke who prepared the children to make their First Holy Communion. At that time, Rainham children made their First Holy Communion at Mass on Easter Day morning, so the breakfast of boiled eggs they shared together afterwards was highly appropriate. This became a tradition in Rainham, stopped only in the 1960’s by Fr. Gleeson.
It was not long before Fr. Scott turned his attention to development at Rainham: and the notices for August 13th 1933, found Fr. Scott explaining that,
“At your meeting on Wednesday, August 2nd, when I occupied the chair, as you know, it was decided to arrange, if possible, a loan to proceed with the building of a Parochial Hall which could be used as a temporary church. There was no meeting of the Diocesan Finance Committee last week; but I shall make the necessary application for permission to raise the loan before the Committee tomorrow morning.”
Once the decision to build the hall was made, events moved very rapidly. A committee was formed which met in Mr Clarke’s house. By September 17th, the architect had visited the site: and by the end of November, the plans had been drawn up and were being discussed.
On completion the Hall was blessed by Fr. Scott on the evening of Friday November 9th 1934, and officially opened by Bishop Amigo at a Solemn High Mass celebrated the following day, Saturday November 10th; the Feast of St. Justus. “A very wet day” wrote Fr. Scott in the Notice Book.
An account of the opening, prepared for the local press, said that a large crowd was present that morning for the Solemn High Mass which was sung by Fr. Scott. Bishop Amigo was attended by Fr. Ryan of Chatham and by Fr. Murphy, the assistant priest of Gillingham. The choir and organist of Our Lady of Gillingham was in attendance. Bishop Amigo preached on the theme “The Master is here”, a moving sermon on the Real Presence. In the sermon mention was also made of the energetic Fr. Quinn,“who had sadly gone to his rest.” (Fr. Quinn had died on September 12th, 1932.) At the conclusion of Mass the Bishop “in his own gracious manner, spoke to each one as they left the building.”
In Inventory of the hall furniture and fittings survives, drawn up by Lewis J. Fox, the Honorary Caretaker from the date of opening. It is meticulous in detail, listing everything down to 2 Kettles (worn out). From this list, and under a separate heading, we know that the Legion of Mary, with its mission of evangelisation and pastoral care, was already active in this infant community.
At the end of 1934 there is a summary of all expenses incurred in the building of the hall, which amounted to £1,482.1s.7d. But strangely, a statement in the report of the Bishop’s 1937 visitation of Gillingham, says that: “The Rainham Hall cost £1,700 and the debt is now £1,329.”
The War Years
There was no Midnight Mass at Christmas celebrated at Gillingham during the war years, but with this exception, and the absence of coach outings to seaside resorts; other activities, such as whist drives, dances and socials continued to be organised quite normally, with, of course, reduced admission prices for members of the Armed Forces. A little surprisingly, considering the very real possibility of air raids: coaches were arranged in both 1941 and 1942 for the Annual Outdoor Procession in Honour of the Blessed Sacrament held at St George’s Cathedral in London (in which ladies were allowed to walk!). Alternatively, one could travel by train. The 9.30 p.m. train from Charing Cross arrived at Gillingham at 10.55 p.m. In time for the 11.00 p.m. train out to Rainham. The return fare was 4s.10d (24p).
During the war there was an Army transit camp situated on the A2 at Hoath Lane, the site of the present Tesco, so there was always a steady stream of soldiers attending Sunday Mass: and in the case of a French Canadian regiment, this became a flood, and the hall would be filled. ‘The Rule for Fasting’ before receiving Communion was not waived during the war years: and in the Notice Book a little pencil written note was inserted which invited any soldier going to Communion to stay behind after Mass for a cup of tea and a sandwich.
Despite rationing, parish parties for the children were still held with the mothers pooling resources to provide party spreads. The children’s pleasure was heightened at at least one of these parties when Mrs. Madigan, whose husband was in the Navy, was able to give sweets to all the children present.
Mention of the war years would hardly be complete without reference to Dr. Kary Pole, who must be the most illustrious of our parishioners to date. Dr. Pole, whose birth name was Karl Friedrich Pollaczek, was born in Vienna into a wealthy and highly influential Jewish family. He trained as a doctor in Vienna and was received into the Church there on September 29th, 1936. The occupation of Austria by Germany made it necessary for him to flee his country, and in the October of 1938 he arrived in England, and of 950 general practitioners who came to this country from mainland Europe he was one of only 40 admitted for re-qualification and practice. Having re-qualified in the February of 1940, Dr. Pole obtained a partnership in the Rainham practice of Dr. Norman Porterfield who was already in the Army, stationed at Rochester, and running his practice on a part-time basis. The fall of France to Germany in the May of 1940 left Britain open to the possibility of invasion, and Dr. Pole was interned as an enemy alien; but Dr. Porterfield, soon to be posted abroad, and other friends, successfully pressed for the necessity of his speedy release and re-appointment to Rainham, where, for the remainder of the war he ran the practice single handed. He also served in the Home Guard and was commissioned with the rank of Major, which greatly facilitated his application for naturalisation once the war ended.
After the war, Dr. Pole built up his own successful practice in Rainham, (but found time to be a founder member of the Medway Circle of the Catenian Association, and its first President from 1950-1951). He was honoured by the Pope for his writings on medico-moral matters, and was a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre: while his interest in Police Surgeon’s work led to lectures and publications in that field too. Besides running his own very busy general practice he also worked for 35 years as Divisional Police Surgeon until ill health forced him to retire. He died at the age of 85 in the February of 1988 and the bearers at his funeral were Officers of the Kent Police.
Years of Growth In Rainham
The Notice Book from mid-1942 to Low Sunday, April 16th 1950 is unfortunately, missing. From the Diocesan archives, though, we know that there was a fire at the hall in 1947 caused by the ignition of (waste) creosote: but that the Fire Brigade being quickly on the scene there was only slight external damage. We also know, from the records of the Knights of St. Columba, that Lewis J. Fox, the Honorary Caretaker of the hall from the time of its opening in 1934, died on May 20th 1948.
However, from an account written in the early 1970’s, and from other sources, there is other information available covering this period.
We know, that in the hall, the altar was centrally placed on a slightly raised stage on the south wall. The altar itself, when not in use, was covered with “a funny gold cloth” and curtains were drawn across the stage. To the right, when facing the altar, was a kitchen, a dingy narrow slit of a room with a gas cooker, sink, drainer and cupboards under: and to the left, a space where a screen was placed when Confessions were being heard. The hall was heated by gas fires and the floor protected with canvas. Later, the canvas was removed and the ladies of the parish kept the floor polished. Much later, industrial type polishers were used for this job! The first of these was supplied by Mrs. Ruth Kemsley, whose husband, with other members of his family, ran a chain of butchers shops in the Medway Towns.
On the death of Mr. Fox it was Mr Arthur Callahan who became the Honorary Caretaker of the hall: undertaking many of the duties of Sacristan as well. The hall was in regular use for Catechism classes; meetings of the senior and junior groups of the Legion of Mary; whist drives and occasionally, a wedding reception or a private party. Mr Callahan continued as caretaker until illness in the last few months of his life brought about his retirement. He died in the October of 1958.
There was still only the 9.30 a.m. Sunday Mass at Rainham, but by 1950, when the Notice Book resumed, there was also a weekday Mass being celebrated on either a Monday or a Tuesday: and intermittently, Rosary and Benediction in the afternoon or evening on Sundays.
Theresa Callahan (now Smith) ran the repository, which at first occupied no more space than a card table set up at the back of the hall. This was very thinly supplied by the parish church in Gillingham, and eventually, Theresa, asked for and obtained from Fr. Scott, a letter of introduction to Laverty’s, where Theresa spent £5 of her own money on cards and other stock. This was sufficient to generate a good turnover and the repository went from strength to strength.
Another of Theresa’s tasks, from the time she was very young, was to collect money in a little box for the provision of altar flowers the following week. This went on for a long time, even beyond the time when St. Thomas’ was built. Parishioners would also give flowers, and Mrs. Pole (Dr. Pole’s wife) was famed for the roses from her garden during the summer months.
Although Rainham was growing, parish life at this time still centred on the parish church of Our Lady of Gillingham. Children would be prepared by Mrs. Clarke to make their First Holy Communion at Rainham; but Confirmation always took place at Gillingham. To attend the Easter ceremonies, or Midnight Mass at Christmas, the people of Rainham would have to go to the parish church. For Midnight Mass special buses were arranged, with tickets ordered and paid for in advance: but mostly, children and adults would cut across the fields at Twydall and follow the path by the railway line along to the church. (The advent of the car has made it difficult for us now to appreciate how far people were prepared to walk to attend Mass. Before the hall was built in Rainham in 1934 a Miss Mason of Bredhurst would walk “across the fields” to St Michael’s Church in Chatham.)
As with all the major ceremonies of the Church, so it was with most entertainments, with the people of Rainham going to Gillingham for parish dances, ceilidhs, concerts and film shows: and although Mrs. Madigan ran highly successful jumble sales at Rainham, the principal fund- raisers, the annual garden fête and the autumn sale of work, were likewise held at Gillingham with Mrs. Christina Shorten spearheading Rainham’s efforts towards their success. By 1951 Rainham’s contribution had become significant. At the autumn sale of work, held on October 20th, the Rainham stalls made a profit of £122, and those of Gillingham £148.
However, the most important development in Rainham in 1951 followed the Bishop’s Visitation of Gillingham in June the report of which noted: “Congregation increasing in Rainham. May need more Masses in time.” The ‘time’ arrived very shortly afterwards. On December 2nd 1951, and appropriately on the first Sunday of Advent, two Masses were celebrated in the hall. There was a congregation of 237 in all. 101 for the Mass at 8.30 a.m.; and 136 for the Mass at 10.00 a.m.
During 1952 and 1953 two new fund-raising schemes were introduced to help to finance the building of a church at Rainham. One, a Catholic Football Pool, run from Gillingham, but with many agents in Rainham, received its first mention in the July of 1951; but did not commence until the August of 1952. A second, simpler scheme was a “mile-of-pennies” which began on Palm Sunday in March 1953. By May 24th the 310 yard point had been reached: and by October 11th there was only a ¼ of a mile to go and £158.8s.0d. (£150.40) had been raised. Unfortunately, no further mention of this scheme was made.
1954: The Year of Decision
Throughout most of 1954 there was little recorded in the Notice Book that was out of the ordinary. It was given out at the Notices at Easter that the curtains that had been hung when the hall was built in 1934 were looking shabby and in need of replacement; and on Sunday, October 15th Bishop Cowderoy celebrated the 8.30 a.m. Mass at Rainham, and then spent most of the morning here.
It was not until the evening of Sunday, November 14th, when the whole parish (Gillingham as well as Rainham), was invited to a well-publicised event in the hall, which was a strange mixture of business and entertainment that the decision was taken to go ahead with the building of a church and a school at Rainham.
The other significant step of 1954 was that for the first time, Rainham had its own Christmas Midnight Mass.
The Building Years
An offshoot of the meeting held on November 14th was that a committee was formed to organise a Social Club for Rainham. This committee sprang into action, and within a fortnight had organised its first Social and Dance. By the New Year a Grand Carnival Dance had been organised and membership of the club stood at 77. Out of a total congregation of 300, this figure was disappointing to the committee!
Whist drives were held fortnightly from the middle of January 1955, and a Youth Club for both boys and girls was being formed. Membership of the Social Club was 6d (2½p) a year; and admission to both dances and whist drives was 1/6d (7½p). Out of this sum the cost of refreshments and prizes was met, so the profits must have been very small. However, the weekly dances in the hall were a huge success and attracted young people from all over the Medway Towns. The music was “live”, provided by a three-piece band.
Bricks for the new church were sold at 1/- (5p) each after Sunday Masses from the card table repository: and under the foundation stone is a book in which parishioners who bought bricks have their names inscribed. The sense of drive, enthusiasm and excitement almost lifts off the pages as one reads.
The enthusiasm spread beyond fund-raising and social events. Rainham members of the Medway Catholic Women’s Guild (at that time a very strong group), made vestments for the new church. It was a project taken very seriously, with those involved attending special classes at the Rochester College of Art, where they were tutored by Enid Edwards, a highly talented artist whose commissions include the Stations of the Cross at St. Francis’ Church in Maidstone; and tapestries in the Lady Chapel of Rochester Cathedral. Some of the patterns and designs created by Enid Edwards for these vestments are still held by Mrs Ruth Kemsley, who with Mrs Kiff Finlay were two of the principal embroiderers. However, many members of the group must have been highly skilled needlewomen; for looking at the beautiful “flame” chasuble at Twydall and a purple cope at Rainham, it is almost impossible to believe that these vestments were made by amateurs, however gifted. Other vestments were made too – Theresa Smith remembers her mother cutting out one chasuble on the kitchen floor – but we do not know what has happened to them.
The architect of St Thomas’ Church, Eduardo Dodds, was part English, and part Argentine, and had his offices in London at 45 Queen Anne Street. We do not have Mr Dodd’s plans for St. Thomas’ Church; but two scale drawings show the church virtually as it came to be built. The principal differences are that the first drawing, dated February 10th 1955, indicates that murals were planned for the walls on either side of the sanctuary; and the second, dated July 6th 1955, shows a clock face on both the north and east sides of the tower.
It was on April 21st 1956 that a letter from Eduardo Dodds to Fr. Scott gave the results of the competitive tenders for the building of St. Thomas’ Church; and of the seven tenders received those of J. H. Durrant of Strood, and Cox Bros., were the lowest. These were then sent to the Quantity Surveyors, Messrs. Rider Hunt and Partners, who in checking the figures found errors in both; raising the tender of J. H. Durrant to £39,559 and lowering that of Cox Bros., to £40,337. It was J.H. Durrant’s tender that was accepted.
In the autumn of 1956 with the foundations of St. Thomas’ dug and brickwork so far above the ground that winter frosts would have caused damage, a crisis arose in that it became very difficult to obtain bank loans (a possible effect of the disastrous Anglo-French-Israeli attempt to reassert international control of the Suez Canal). However, Fr. Barbyer, who had been appointed to Gillingham when newly ordained priest in 1955, put the case to a bank inspector whom he knew well; and Fr. Scott prayed to St. Jude. When the bank loans necessary to continue the building work were obtained Fr. Barbyer gave thanks to the bank inspector and Fr. Scott to St. Jude! (Does this explain why a statue of St. Jude stands just within the inner doors of the church?). Because of the financial restraints prevailing, St. Thomas’ was the only church to be built in the diocese at that time.
The Laying of the Foundation Stone was a very grand occasion with Bishop Cowderoy performing the ceremony which took place, appropriately enough, on the Feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, December 29th 1956, which was also Fr. Tommy Scott’s birthday.
Building the church would appear to have been a happy experience for all concerned. For Durrants it was the first church that they had built, and they were very proud of their work: and as Mr. Dodds could “lay and cut bricks with the best of them”, he had their admiration. During the course of the construction of the church Mr. Dodds invited parishioners to a talk in which he explained that the church had been designed so that maintenance could be kept to a minimum. While this has remained very true of the interior, the exterior has presented problems. The flat roofs have required repair and to renew them would prove very costly: and on the south wall of the church (the weather side), the nave windows now leak profusely when heavy rain is being driven in by a high wind. All the stone carving and statuary in the church is the work of Michael Clark, F.R.B.S., who was for some years President of the Royal Academy and who in 1960 was awarded the Otto Beit Medal for his statue of the ‘Glorious Virgin of the Assumption’ at Aylesford.
How much or how little of Michael Clark’s work was completed before the opening of the Church on April 28th 1958 it is not possible to say. The order for the ‘14 Stations of the Cross’ was accepted on September 11th 1957, but their Canonical Erection, a ceremony performed by Fr. Walter O.F.M., did not take place until November 19th 1958. There is also an account dated February 3rd 1959 for the carvings of St. George and St. Patrick and the decorative carving on the canopy of the Lady Chapel (now the ‘Blessed Sacrament Chapel’): but it is not until April 24th 1963 that Michael Clark lists and gives the prices for all his work for the church, which including the exterior statue of St. Thomas of Canterbury, totalled £2,235.
The statue of St Thomas of Canterbury in the church was the gift of Fr. Scott who brought it home from a holiday abroad. This traditional heavily gilded statue was totally out of keeping in such a modern setting but Mr. Dodds had a gentle way and persuaded Fr. Scott that the best place for the statue would be in front of the organ/choir gallery where it would be seen by all the congregation when leaving the church.
The ceramics in St. Thomas’ Church were designed by Adam Kossowski. The main work is that of St. Joseph, seated, with the Child Jesus at his side, and in what is now the Lady Chapel there are angels shown against a background of blue tiles. Designs by the same artist, very similar if not identical to these, may be seen at Aylesford Priory: but the design above the main entrance, depicting the murder of St Thomas of Canterbury is unique. The ceramic work must have been completed at about the time of the church’s opening as Fr. Scott writes in the Notice Book for May 28th 1958, ”I hope the ceramics, the work of Mr. Kossowski, please you all. He may do more work inside the church if I can find the funds.” We have no correspondence from Mr. Kossowski, or accounts.
Of the opening of the Church on April 28th 1958, Fr. Scott wrote in the Notice Book:
“It was very encouraging to see the great numbers who were present at the Solemn Blessing and opening of this church on Monday last. I have had letters from non-Catholics who say how impressed they were with the beauty of the church and the function, especially the Pontifical High Mass.”
Fr. Scott concludes the entry in praise of the choir: he writes; “It was glorious.” This ‘glorious’ sound probably had much to do with the influence of Fr. Norman Swinton, who though appointed to Gillingham as a curate in the March of 1957, was made responsible for the Rainham section of the parish by Fr. Scott. Fr. Swinton, a convert to Catholicism, had formerly been a member of the ‘BBC Singers’, and he quickly established a choir of some standing at St. Thomas’ Church. The choir, robed in cassocks and surplices would process into the church with the priests and servers, and then, ranged at the back of the altar would face the congregation to sing. Our Sung Mass was celebrated on Sunday evenings as our resident organist, Nicholas Danby, a grandson of Charles Dickens, also played for the High Mass at the Carmelite Church in Kensington on Sunday mornings. (Mr. Danby subsequently became choirmaster at the Jesuit Church in Farm Street.)
The organ at St Thomas’ was built by J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd at the cost of £3,206 and was blessed by Fr. Scott on Wednesday January 20th 1960. On the same evening Fr. Peter Farmer, a fine organist, and the choir gave a recital, the first item on the programme being Benjamin Britten’s cantata “Rejoice in the Lamb”. From then on there was an organ recital every month given by a variety of distinguished recitalists including Barry Rose, organist at Guildford Cathedral; and Michael Bigg, organist at Canterbury Cathedral. With guest preachers the calibre of Fr. J.D. Chrichton and Fr. Bernard Bassett SJ, the church must have been something of a cultural haven.
Fr. Swinton’s oversight of Rainham was not official: but once St. Thomas’ Church was officially opened it became clear to Fr. Scott that a resident priest would be an asset; and Fr. Swinton took up his now famous (or infamous) residence in the Church Hall with ”Bosun” his Boxer dog as companion and protector. Not informed of this move the Bishop was understandably displeased when news of it came to his notice: but as it was a ‘fait accompli’ he allowed it to continue, providing suitable accommodation was found. It was Mrs Callahan who very kindly opened her home to Fr. Swinton. The Notice Book for June 26th 1960 records the “temporarily the priest’s address will be 2 Salisbury Avenue.” Fr. Swinton stayed there for nine months.
A site for a chapel-at-ease to be built at Twydall was acquired by Fr. Scott from Gillingham Borough Council on May 9th 1957, but it was not until August 1961, when we stood in danger of the site being compulsorily repurchased by the Council, that building work finally began. The footings were dug and the foundations were laid by the ‘Internationale Bouworde’, an Order of laypeople and religious from the Netherlands, which was founded after the 1939-45 war to repair or rebuild war damaged churches. The Order has since been dissolved. Parishioners also helped on the site, and several families offered hospitality; but as a group, they were accommodated in the hall, sleeping on camp beds. The plans for the church were available by the November of 1961, and the architect, as for St. Thomas’ Church, was Eduardo Dodds, but we have no correspondence concerning its building, its fittings or its costs. Eduardo Dodds died of cancer (still a relatively young man), during the building of this church and his partner, Kenneth White took charge. Fr. Barbyer was placed as an unofficial ‘clerk of works’, but he found it impossible to prevent the theft of bricks and other materials, and believed that many garages built in the Twydall area at that time were constructed of materials taken from the church site. The builders were a small firm, Nye & Son, and often days would pass without any work at all being done; but whether this was the sole reason for the church not opening until the Lent of 1964, or whether other factors were involved we do not know.
Fr. Swinton left us at the beginning of September 1961, just after work had commenced on the site at Twydall, and was replaced by Fr. James Petry who was officially appointed as ‘priest-in-charge’ at Rainham. Although officially appointed there was no Presbytery in Rainham and Fr. Petry took lodgings with Mrs. Lye at 59 London Road. Before coming to Rainham Fr. Petry had had a chequered career. Like Fr. Swinton and Fr. Curtin who came to us in 1973, he was trained and ordained at Wonersh in 1948 and worked in several parishes in the diocese before becoming a chaplain in the British Army in 1950. For services in Korea he received the M.B.E., awarded he said modestly, for bringing beer to the troops under fire. Fr. Petry was also a chaplain on ships going out to Australia carrying passengers on £10 assisted passages arriving at Fremantle in March 1957. Except for the eighteen months he spent in Rainham between 1961 and 1963, he has served continuously in parishes in Australia ever since. Fr. Petry was keen to maintain the musical standards set by Fr. Swinton at St. Thomas’ and spent a lot of time working with the choir. He would also take the young boys home after practice - all crammed into the back of his Morris mini-van.
Fr. Petry, though, is mostly remembered for introducing the Offertory Promise Campaign into Gillingham and Rainham. Mass attendance figures at Rainham had risen to almost 600, but the collection was averaging only £40 a week: and the debt on the church stood at £31,000. It was the level of this debt, Fr. Scott explained to Bishop’s House, that precluded Rainham being cut off as a separate parish. There was also the debt on Twydall. Revenue from the Football Pool started in 1952 was beginning to fall off, and according to Fr. Barbyer, repayment on bank loans amounting to £128 a week was having a very serious effect on living standards at Gillingham Presbytery.
The Offertory Promise Campaign was run with professional help during the summer months of 1962. The brochure, glossy for the time, featured photographs of the clergy at home and parish activities. It also set out very clearly and simply the financial position. The income of £12,000 over three years needed to be raised to £43,000 over the same period of time to be able to deal adequately with the debt on the Rainham and Twydall churches, which together, stood at £39,000. The Campaign was a huge and popular success. Demand for tickets for a celebration dinner held at the Drill Hall was so great that two such events had to be organised to cater for numbers. On the first Sunday the Offertory envelopes were used, the collection more than doubled to £85.14s. (85.70p) and rose to an average of £90 - £95 in the following weeks.
On Low Sunday, April 21st, 1963, the familiar cry of “No Parking on the A2” is mentioned for the first time: and on May 12th, 1963, an ‘Australian Style Social’ was held to say farewell to Fr. Petry and to meet our first parish priest; Fr. John Gleeson.
At this point a rather sad note creeps in. Fr. Scott did not want to lose Rainham. As early as 1948, eager to build Rainham up to parish level, and believing that his presence in Rainham would facilitate this; Fr. Scott had asked Archbishop Amigo for permission to buy 211 London Road and to reside there. Unfortunately, Archbishop Amigo interpreted this as a request from Fr. Scott to be appointed to Rainham as parish priest. At this time many senior priests were leaving the Armed Forces where they had served as Chaplains during the war years, and Archbishop Amigo mistakenly saw this as an opportunity to appoint one such priest as parish priest at Gillingham. Fr. Scott was incensed on being informed by the Vicar General of this misunderstanding and replied in a letter, withering in its tone, except for one sentence. He wrote:
“When the time is ripe, when Rainham can afford to be cut off from Gillingham and have parish status, I would not mind being its first parish priest, and build its church.”
Now, having spent more than thirty years building up a congregation and where he had so recently overseen the building of the church (to which he had given the handsome monstrance presented to him by the clergy of the Deanery on the occasion of his 50th anniversary to the priesthood), Fr. Gleeson was to be the first parish priest.
Bishop Cowderoy probably had some knowledge of this earlier episode, as in a report following a visitation in March 1963, he wrote congratulating Fr. Scott on the beauty of the church at Rainham, but added, “I am sure that you will be sorry to give it up – but after all, you did not build it for yourself.” When this report was written it was known, to the clergy at least, that Fr. Petry was to be succeeded at Rainham by Fr. Gleeson who was to be independent of Gillingham. Remarkably, even then, Fr. Scott did not appreciate that Fr. Gleeson’s appointment was actually as parish priest; and his reluctance to relinquish Rainham is made evident in correspondence between him and Bishop Cowderoy, who wrote in a letter dated April 6th 1963, “Fr. Gleeson must come as parish priest – not even curate-in-charge.” (sic)
Fr. Scott retired to Glenstal Abbey in Limerick in the October of 1963 and died there eleven years later at the age of 96.
FR. John Gleeson
Fr. Gleeson was a very active priest possessed of sound business judgement and much was achieved in Rainham during his ten years as parish priest. His time here also encompassed the momentous events of the 1960’s, which will go down in history as watershed years in the life of the Catholic Church. A Council, commonly referred to as ‘Vatican II’ was held in Rome between 1962-1965 and was to profoundly change thinking and understanding in the Church.
Another process of change that took place was that the Latin of the ‘Tridentine Mass’ gave way for a ‘New Order of Mass’ celebrated in the vernacular. Initially, the pace of change was very slow, and it was not until the First Sunday in Advent in 1964 that a small amount of English entered into the Liturgy. The four new ‘Eucharistic Prayers’, which gave an element of choice in place of the unvarying Roman Canon in the ‘Old Rite’, were introduced from June 18th 1969: and the New Order of Mass, in its entirety, came into use on March 1st 1970. The metamorphosis was complete. Catholics became active participants in the celebration of the Mass in a manner denied them since the early days of the Church.
Fr. Gleeson prepared the parish well to meet and accept all these changes and strongly encouraged the purchase of the New Mass booklets as each one became available. The purchase of Holy Week publications was also encouraged, for although the ceremonies had been restored to their original times from the Easter of 1956, the ‘Rites’ underwent several changes until they, too, were finalised in 1970.
Along with changes in the ‘Liturgy of the Mass’ came some small re-ordering of the churches. In St. Thomas’ the Tabernacle was moved from its central position on the main altar to the chapel in the north aisle decorated with Adam Kossowski’s ceramics of angels. The statue of the ‘Sacred Heart’ was moved from there to a position close by in the north aisle. The ‘New Rite of Mass’ required the priest to be facing the people, so until it was possible to move the marble altar forward, Mass was said from a temporary wooden altar placed just within the sanctuary.
In 1963 there was still no accommodation for a priest in Rainham and Fr. Gleeson, like Fr Petry before him, took lodgings with Mrs. Lye at 59 London Road but later moved to lodge in Hawthorne Avenue with two widowed sisters, Mrs Mabs Mills and Mrs. Doris Gould. Rainham was now a very large and flourishing parish with its boundaries set from the Darland Estate to Hartlip on the south side of the A2, and from Woodlands Road and the large Twydall Estate through to Upchurch and Halstow on the north; so the need for a Presbytery must have been very pressing. This was acquired in the January of 1964 when Fr. Gleeson purchased 69 London Road for, it was said, £5,000. A very fair price for such a property at that time.
Although the church at Twydall came within the boundaries of Rainham parish, it only ceased to be served jointly by Gillingham and Rainham in the September of 1965 when the Archbishop sent the newly ordained Fr. Matthew Neylon to Rainham as assistant priest. Until then, from the time the church had opened during Lent 1964, Fr. Patrick (Paddy) Porter, (who had been appointed parish priest at Gillingham on the retirement of Fr. Tommy Scott in the October of 1963), had celebrated Mass on alternate Sundays and had also taken the children’s Catechism classes. Fr. Neylon, whose appointment is the only time mention is made in the Notice Book of any assistant priest during Fr. Gleeson’s time here as parish priest, stayed until sometime in 1967: but once he left there was a veritable procession of assistant priests who simply came and went, until Fr. David O’Regan, appointed in 1969, broke this sequence.
Looking through the Notice Books of Fr. Gleeson’s years at Rainham, scarcely a week passed without some call for money, be it a fête, jumble sale or a raffle: and as soon as one event had passed there were appeals and pressure for the success of the next. However, these calls for money were almost inevitable. Our proportion of the combined debt on the building of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church and the Church at Twydall was set at £16,000, and our weekly collection, which averaged £95, was no more than that achieved at the time of the Offertory Promise Campaign.
The flagging Football Pool was re-organised (in Rainham only) in 1964, but it was never as successful as in the early days, and it was finally abandoned from the end of November 1971. A ‘300 Club’, suggested by the parish council to raise £1,000 required for the repair and redecoration of the hall, took its place. This ‘Club’ was modestly successful; but parishioners were slow to join and it was never fully subscribed.
Of great help to Fr. Gleeson was the ‘Rainham Catholic Ladies Club’, which was formed during the summer months of 1964.
This club had a very strong social dimension, but its members also organised the many fund-raising events so necessary to service our debts and to meet the very heavy demands being placed on so young a parish: the most pressing of these being the need for a primary school, the building of which had been decided upon at the meeting held in Rainham on November 14th 1954.
The Consecration Of St. Thomas Of Canterbury Church
The crowning moment of Fr. Gleeson’s time as parish priest at Rainham must have been the consecration of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church on June 11th 1970. At a time when it was still necessary for a church building to be free of all debt before consecration could take place, we in Rainham had achieved in twelve years what many parishes had taken 50 years to achieve. It also reflects greatly to the credit of Fr. Gleeson that an inherited debt of £16,000 was cleared in seven years.
The consecration took place on a most beautiful summer evening with the sun streaming in through the west window. Archbishop Cowderoy officiated at the ceremony which commenced at 5.30 p.m. This precluded the attendance of many parishioners, particularly those who worked in London; but such an early start was probably necessary as the consecration ceremony, which preceded the Mass, was very lengthy indeed.
Waitresses smartly dressed in uniforms of black and white, served sandwiches and cake in the hall after the ceremony. Tea and coffee were also served; but in keeping with Fr. Gleeson’s strictly held ‘Pioneer’ status, there was no wine.
The first mention of Rainham in the Diocesan archives comes in a report, dated May 8th 1923, following a visitation of Gillingham by Bishop Amigo where Canon Thomas McMahon was parish priest. Bishop Amigo writes:-
“I am very pleased that we have been able to help by giving the site for Rainham. You have a monthly Mass at Mr Lynch’s and I shall be glad if you can arrange for one every Sunday for a time, letting me know after a few months whether it is worthwhile continuing.”
The site given for Rainham, quoted by Bishop Amigo, is the same plot on which our beautiful church, dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, now stands. The Conveyance of the plot to the Diocesan Trustees is dated 31st October 1921; and shows that the plot, measuring 200’ by 108’ was bordered on the Rainham side by land owned by the Rainham Tennis Club and on the Gillingham side, by land owned by a Miss Blinman. The purchase price was £270. There is no record to show whether Bishop Amigo’s request for a weekly Mass to be held in Rainham was met but on May 9th 1927, Fr Gerald Quinn, the assistant priest at Gillingham, sent the following letter to Bishop Amigo:-
“My Lord Bishop,
Last September I submitted to your Lordship a plan for Mass at Rainham. You told me to wait for some decision concerning Naval Chaplaincy. On the presumption that that question is now shelved I beg to submit another plan for Rainham.
After a long time I have been able to secure (provisionally) a hall for Sunday mornings at a rental of 3/- (15p) per Sunday. The Hall is the property of the Rainham Brotherhood an undenominational collection of laymen. They use the Hall on Sunday afternoons for a lecture or some sort of a vague semi-religious service.
The Hall will seat about 70 people. It is very quiet and in the most convenient part of the village.
In my opinion, (and that of the Canon) it is perfectly suitable for Mass. The Canon has given the scheme his benediction and I shall arrange as not to throw any extra work on him. At a conservative estimate, we shall get a congregation of at least 50.
Parts of Rainham are 4 miles from here, and the Bus service is inconvenient and expensive.
The Catholics in Rainham will be deeply grateful if your Lordship will grant permission to say Mass in this Hall every Sunday.
With apologies for my handwriting.
I am, my Lord Bishop,
Yours obediently,
Gerald R. Quinn.”
The Rainham Brotherhood’s Hall was demolished a long time ago to make way for new housing; but it was situated in Church Lane, which runs alongside St. Margaret’s Church.
From the time Mass was celebrated weekly in Rainham, the Mass count figures were shown under a separate heading on Gillingham’s returns. Fr. Quinn’s expectation of an attendance of at least 50 people was a little on the generous side but each and every following return showed a small but significant increase.
In November 1931, Mr and Mrs A Callahan and their little daughter, Theresa came to live in No. 2 Salisbury (then Hamilton) Avenue. The site for St. Thomas’ Church had been left quite untouched and was nothing more than a field where Theresa remembers playing and making daisy chains; and even, at times, sharing the field with a pony. We now know this little girl as Theresa Smith, and her continuous, and integral association with the parish has made for a valuable source of information in the preparation of this booklet. Theresa remembers going to Mass in the Rainham Brotherhood’s Hall: where, because it was not a place specifically dedicated to Catholic worship, Mass was preceded every week with The Asperges.
The Church Hall
For some years before his retirement, Canon McMahon had been in failing health (as implied by Fr. Quinn in his letter to Bishop Amigo); but by 1932 the Canon had retired and Fr. ‘Tommy’ Scott arrived to commence his 31 years as parish priest of Gillingham.
The Notice Book for Rainham was opened on June 18th 1933. On that day, the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, there was to be a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament in the Convent grounds at Chatham at 3.00 p.m. The second collection was for St. Bart’s Hospital, and the Building Fund collections the previous week had amounted to 4/6d (22p).
At that time, the weekly collections seldom exceeded £1 and were often quite a lot less. Whist Drives, of which there were many, would raise £3 on most occasions and raffles were held on a regular basis. A ‘sale of work’, held in October 1934 made a profit of £68; but this would have been a joint Gillingham/Rainham venture and would have been held in Gillingham. All money raising events would appear to have been held in aid of the Building Fund.
During the summer months there were many coach outings to places like Tankerton, Hartley, Faversham and Canterbury. The cost for an adult was usually in the region of 3/- (15p), and for a child 2/- (10p). Again, these outings would have involved both Gillingham and Rainham.
A very influential figure in those early days was undoubtedly a Mr John Clarke. Although Mr Clarke taught at St Michael’s School in Chatham for 42 years in all, and was Headmaster from 1920-1946, he lived in Rainham at “St. Theresa’s”, 90 Twydall Lane, and was at the heart of all decision making here. It was Mrs Clarke who prepared the children to make their First Holy Communion. At that time, Rainham children made their First Holy Communion at Mass on Easter Day morning, so the breakfast of boiled eggs they shared together afterwards was highly appropriate. This became a tradition in Rainham, stopped only in the 1960’s by Fr. Gleeson.
It was not long before Fr. Scott turned his attention to development at Rainham: and the notices for August 13th 1933, found Fr. Scott explaining that,
“At your meeting on Wednesday, August 2nd, when I occupied the chair, as you know, it was decided to arrange, if possible, a loan to proceed with the building of a Parochial Hall which could be used as a temporary church. There was no meeting of the Diocesan Finance Committee last week; but I shall make the necessary application for permission to raise the loan before the Committee tomorrow morning.”
Once the decision to build the hall was made, events moved very rapidly. A committee was formed which met in Mr Clarke’s house. By September 17th, the architect had visited the site: and by the end of November, the plans had been drawn up and were being discussed.
On completion the Hall was blessed by Fr. Scott on the evening of Friday November 9th 1934, and officially opened by Bishop Amigo at a Solemn High Mass celebrated the following day, Saturday November 10th; the Feast of St. Justus. “A very wet day” wrote Fr. Scott in the Notice Book.
An account of the opening, prepared for the local press, said that a large crowd was present that morning for the Solemn High Mass which was sung by Fr. Scott. Bishop Amigo was attended by Fr. Ryan of Chatham and by Fr. Murphy, the assistant priest of Gillingham. The choir and organist of Our Lady of Gillingham was in attendance. Bishop Amigo preached on the theme “The Master is here”, a moving sermon on the Real Presence. In the sermon mention was also made of the energetic Fr. Quinn,“who had sadly gone to his rest.” (Fr. Quinn had died on September 12th, 1932.) At the conclusion of Mass the Bishop “in his own gracious manner, spoke to each one as they left the building.”
In Inventory of the hall furniture and fittings survives, drawn up by Lewis J. Fox, the Honorary Caretaker from the date of opening. It is meticulous in detail, listing everything down to 2 Kettles (worn out). From this list, and under a separate heading, we know that the Legion of Mary, with its mission of evangelisation and pastoral care, was already active in this infant community.
At the end of 1934 there is a summary of all expenses incurred in the building of the hall, which amounted to £1,482.1s.7d. But strangely, a statement in the report of the Bishop’s 1937 visitation of Gillingham, says that: “The Rainham Hall cost £1,700 and the debt is now £1,329.”
The War Years
There was no Midnight Mass at Christmas celebrated at Gillingham during the war years, but with this exception, and the absence of coach outings to seaside resorts; other activities, such as whist drives, dances and socials continued to be organised quite normally, with, of course, reduced admission prices for members of the Armed Forces. A little surprisingly, considering the very real possibility of air raids: coaches were arranged in both 1941 and 1942 for the Annual Outdoor Procession in Honour of the Blessed Sacrament held at St George’s Cathedral in London (in which ladies were allowed to walk!). Alternatively, one could travel by train. The 9.30 p.m. train from Charing Cross arrived at Gillingham at 10.55 p.m. In time for the 11.00 p.m. train out to Rainham. The return fare was 4s.10d (24p).
During the war there was an Army transit camp situated on the A2 at Hoath Lane, the site of the present Tesco, so there was always a steady stream of soldiers attending Sunday Mass: and in the case of a French Canadian regiment, this became a flood, and the hall would be filled. ‘The Rule for Fasting’ before receiving Communion was not waived during the war years: and in the Notice Book a little pencil written note was inserted which invited any soldier going to Communion to stay behind after Mass for a cup of tea and a sandwich.
Despite rationing, parish parties for the children were still held with the mothers pooling resources to provide party spreads. The children’s pleasure was heightened at at least one of these parties when Mrs. Madigan, whose husband was in the Navy, was able to give sweets to all the children present.
Mention of the war years would hardly be complete without reference to Dr. Kary Pole, who must be the most illustrious of our parishioners to date. Dr. Pole, whose birth name was Karl Friedrich Pollaczek, was born in Vienna into a wealthy and highly influential Jewish family. He trained as a doctor in Vienna and was received into the Church there on September 29th, 1936. The occupation of Austria by Germany made it necessary for him to flee his country, and in the October of 1938 he arrived in England, and of 950 general practitioners who came to this country from mainland Europe he was one of only 40 admitted for re-qualification and practice. Having re-qualified in the February of 1940, Dr. Pole obtained a partnership in the Rainham practice of Dr. Norman Porterfield who was already in the Army, stationed at Rochester, and running his practice on a part-time basis. The fall of France to Germany in the May of 1940 left Britain open to the possibility of invasion, and Dr. Pole was interned as an enemy alien; but Dr. Porterfield, soon to be posted abroad, and other friends, successfully pressed for the necessity of his speedy release and re-appointment to Rainham, where, for the remainder of the war he ran the practice single handed. He also served in the Home Guard and was commissioned with the rank of Major, which greatly facilitated his application for naturalisation once the war ended.
After the war, Dr. Pole built up his own successful practice in Rainham, (but found time to be a founder member of the Medway Circle of the Catenian Association, and its first President from 1950-1951). He was honoured by the Pope for his writings on medico-moral matters, and was a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre: while his interest in Police Surgeon’s work led to lectures and publications in that field too. Besides running his own very busy general practice he also worked for 35 years as Divisional Police Surgeon until ill health forced him to retire. He died at the age of 85 in the February of 1988 and the bearers at his funeral were Officers of the Kent Police.
Years of Growth In Rainham
The Notice Book from mid-1942 to Low Sunday, April 16th 1950 is unfortunately, missing. From the Diocesan archives, though, we know that there was a fire at the hall in 1947 caused by the ignition of (waste) creosote: but that the Fire Brigade being quickly on the scene there was only slight external damage. We also know, from the records of the Knights of St. Columba, that Lewis J. Fox, the Honorary Caretaker of the hall from the time of its opening in 1934, died on May 20th 1948.
However, from an account written in the early 1970’s, and from other sources, there is other information available covering this period.
We know, that in the hall, the altar was centrally placed on a slightly raised stage on the south wall. The altar itself, when not in use, was covered with “a funny gold cloth” and curtains were drawn across the stage. To the right, when facing the altar, was a kitchen, a dingy narrow slit of a room with a gas cooker, sink, drainer and cupboards under: and to the left, a space where a screen was placed when Confessions were being heard. The hall was heated by gas fires and the floor protected with canvas. Later, the canvas was removed and the ladies of the parish kept the floor polished. Much later, industrial type polishers were used for this job! The first of these was supplied by Mrs. Ruth Kemsley, whose husband, with other members of his family, ran a chain of butchers shops in the Medway Towns.
On the death of Mr. Fox it was Mr Arthur Callahan who became the Honorary Caretaker of the hall: undertaking many of the duties of Sacristan as well. The hall was in regular use for Catechism classes; meetings of the senior and junior groups of the Legion of Mary; whist drives and occasionally, a wedding reception or a private party. Mr Callahan continued as caretaker until illness in the last few months of his life brought about his retirement. He died in the October of 1958.
There was still only the 9.30 a.m. Sunday Mass at Rainham, but by 1950, when the Notice Book resumed, there was also a weekday Mass being celebrated on either a Monday or a Tuesday: and intermittently, Rosary and Benediction in the afternoon or evening on Sundays.
Theresa Callahan (now Smith) ran the repository, which at first occupied no more space than a card table set up at the back of the hall. This was very thinly supplied by the parish church in Gillingham, and eventually, Theresa, asked for and obtained from Fr. Scott, a letter of introduction to Laverty’s, where Theresa spent £5 of her own money on cards and other stock. This was sufficient to generate a good turnover and the repository went from strength to strength.
Another of Theresa’s tasks, from the time she was very young, was to collect money in a little box for the provision of altar flowers the following week. This went on for a long time, even beyond the time when St. Thomas’ was built. Parishioners would also give flowers, and Mrs. Pole (Dr. Pole’s wife) was famed for the roses from her garden during the summer months.
Although Rainham was growing, parish life at this time still centred on the parish church of Our Lady of Gillingham. Children would be prepared by Mrs. Clarke to make their First Holy Communion at Rainham; but Confirmation always took place at Gillingham. To attend the Easter ceremonies, or Midnight Mass at Christmas, the people of Rainham would have to go to the parish church. For Midnight Mass special buses were arranged, with tickets ordered and paid for in advance: but mostly, children and adults would cut across the fields at Twydall and follow the path by the railway line along to the church. (The advent of the car has made it difficult for us now to appreciate how far people were prepared to walk to attend Mass. Before the hall was built in Rainham in 1934 a Miss Mason of Bredhurst would walk “across the fields” to St Michael’s Church in Chatham.)
As with all the major ceremonies of the Church, so it was with most entertainments, with the people of Rainham going to Gillingham for parish dances, ceilidhs, concerts and film shows: and although Mrs. Madigan ran highly successful jumble sales at Rainham, the principal fund- raisers, the annual garden fête and the autumn sale of work, were likewise held at Gillingham with Mrs. Christina Shorten spearheading Rainham’s efforts towards their success. By 1951 Rainham’s contribution had become significant. At the autumn sale of work, held on October 20th, the Rainham stalls made a profit of £122, and those of Gillingham £148.
However, the most important development in Rainham in 1951 followed the Bishop’s Visitation of Gillingham in June the report of which noted: “Congregation increasing in Rainham. May need more Masses in time.” The ‘time’ arrived very shortly afterwards. On December 2nd 1951, and appropriately on the first Sunday of Advent, two Masses were celebrated in the hall. There was a congregation of 237 in all. 101 for the Mass at 8.30 a.m.; and 136 for the Mass at 10.00 a.m.
During 1952 and 1953 two new fund-raising schemes were introduced to help to finance the building of a church at Rainham. One, a Catholic Football Pool, run from Gillingham, but with many agents in Rainham, received its first mention in the July of 1951; but did not commence until the August of 1952. A second, simpler scheme was a “mile-of-pennies” which began on Palm Sunday in March 1953. By May 24th the 310 yard point had been reached: and by October 11th there was only a ¼ of a mile to go and £158.8s.0d. (£150.40) had been raised. Unfortunately, no further mention of this scheme was made.
1954: The Year of Decision
Throughout most of 1954 there was little recorded in the Notice Book that was out of the ordinary. It was given out at the Notices at Easter that the curtains that had been hung when the hall was built in 1934 were looking shabby and in need of replacement; and on Sunday, October 15th Bishop Cowderoy celebrated the 8.30 a.m. Mass at Rainham, and then spent most of the morning here.
It was not until the evening of Sunday, November 14th, when the whole parish (Gillingham as well as Rainham), was invited to a well-publicised event in the hall, which was a strange mixture of business and entertainment that the decision was taken to go ahead with the building of a church and a school at Rainham.
The other significant step of 1954 was that for the first time, Rainham had its own Christmas Midnight Mass.
The Building Years
An offshoot of the meeting held on November 14th was that a committee was formed to organise a Social Club for Rainham. This committee sprang into action, and within a fortnight had organised its first Social and Dance. By the New Year a Grand Carnival Dance had been organised and membership of the club stood at 77. Out of a total congregation of 300, this figure was disappointing to the committee!
Whist drives were held fortnightly from the middle of January 1955, and a Youth Club for both boys and girls was being formed. Membership of the Social Club was 6d (2½p) a year; and admission to both dances and whist drives was 1/6d (7½p). Out of this sum the cost of refreshments and prizes was met, so the profits must have been very small. However, the weekly dances in the hall were a huge success and attracted young people from all over the Medway Towns. The music was “live”, provided by a three-piece band.
Bricks for the new church were sold at 1/- (5p) each after Sunday Masses from the card table repository: and under the foundation stone is a book in which parishioners who bought bricks have their names inscribed. The sense of drive, enthusiasm and excitement almost lifts off the pages as one reads.
The enthusiasm spread beyond fund-raising and social events. Rainham members of the Medway Catholic Women’s Guild (at that time a very strong group), made vestments for the new church. It was a project taken very seriously, with those involved attending special classes at the Rochester College of Art, where they were tutored by Enid Edwards, a highly talented artist whose commissions include the Stations of the Cross at St. Francis’ Church in Maidstone; and tapestries in the Lady Chapel of Rochester Cathedral. Some of the patterns and designs created by Enid Edwards for these vestments are still held by Mrs Ruth Kemsley, who with Mrs Kiff Finlay were two of the principal embroiderers. However, many members of the group must have been highly skilled needlewomen; for looking at the beautiful “flame” chasuble at Twydall and a purple cope at Rainham, it is almost impossible to believe that these vestments were made by amateurs, however gifted. Other vestments were made too – Theresa Smith remembers her mother cutting out one chasuble on the kitchen floor – but we do not know what has happened to them.
The architect of St Thomas’ Church, Eduardo Dodds, was part English, and part Argentine, and had his offices in London at 45 Queen Anne Street. We do not have Mr Dodd’s plans for St. Thomas’ Church; but two scale drawings show the church virtually as it came to be built. The principal differences are that the first drawing, dated February 10th 1955, indicates that murals were planned for the walls on either side of the sanctuary; and the second, dated July 6th 1955, shows a clock face on both the north and east sides of the tower.
It was on April 21st 1956 that a letter from Eduardo Dodds to Fr. Scott gave the results of the competitive tenders for the building of St. Thomas’ Church; and of the seven tenders received those of J. H. Durrant of Strood, and Cox Bros., were the lowest. These were then sent to the Quantity Surveyors, Messrs. Rider Hunt and Partners, who in checking the figures found errors in both; raising the tender of J. H. Durrant to £39,559 and lowering that of Cox Bros., to £40,337. It was J.H. Durrant’s tender that was accepted.
In the autumn of 1956 with the foundations of St. Thomas’ dug and brickwork so far above the ground that winter frosts would have caused damage, a crisis arose in that it became very difficult to obtain bank loans (a possible effect of the disastrous Anglo-French-Israeli attempt to reassert international control of the Suez Canal). However, Fr. Barbyer, who had been appointed to Gillingham when newly ordained priest in 1955, put the case to a bank inspector whom he knew well; and Fr. Scott prayed to St. Jude. When the bank loans necessary to continue the building work were obtained Fr. Barbyer gave thanks to the bank inspector and Fr. Scott to St. Jude! (Does this explain why a statue of St. Jude stands just within the inner doors of the church?). Because of the financial restraints prevailing, St. Thomas’ was the only church to be built in the diocese at that time.
The Laying of the Foundation Stone was a very grand occasion with Bishop Cowderoy performing the ceremony which took place, appropriately enough, on the Feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, December 29th 1956, which was also Fr. Tommy Scott’s birthday.
Building the church would appear to have been a happy experience for all concerned. For Durrants it was the first church that they had built, and they were very proud of their work: and as Mr. Dodds could “lay and cut bricks with the best of them”, he had their admiration. During the course of the construction of the church Mr. Dodds invited parishioners to a talk in which he explained that the church had been designed so that maintenance could be kept to a minimum. While this has remained very true of the interior, the exterior has presented problems. The flat roofs have required repair and to renew them would prove very costly: and on the south wall of the church (the weather side), the nave windows now leak profusely when heavy rain is being driven in by a high wind. All the stone carving and statuary in the church is the work of Michael Clark, F.R.B.S., who was for some years President of the Royal Academy and who in 1960 was awarded the Otto Beit Medal for his statue of the ‘Glorious Virgin of the Assumption’ at Aylesford.
How much or how little of Michael Clark’s work was completed before the opening of the Church on April 28th 1958 it is not possible to say. The order for the ‘14 Stations of the Cross’ was accepted on September 11th 1957, but their Canonical Erection, a ceremony performed by Fr. Walter O.F.M., did not take place until November 19th 1958. There is also an account dated February 3rd 1959 for the carvings of St. George and St. Patrick and the decorative carving on the canopy of the Lady Chapel (now the ‘Blessed Sacrament Chapel’): but it is not until April 24th 1963 that Michael Clark lists and gives the prices for all his work for the church, which including the exterior statue of St. Thomas of Canterbury, totalled £2,235.
The statue of St Thomas of Canterbury in the church was the gift of Fr. Scott who brought it home from a holiday abroad. This traditional heavily gilded statue was totally out of keeping in such a modern setting but Mr. Dodds had a gentle way and persuaded Fr. Scott that the best place for the statue would be in front of the organ/choir gallery where it would be seen by all the congregation when leaving the church.
The ceramics in St. Thomas’ Church were designed by Adam Kossowski. The main work is that of St. Joseph, seated, with the Child Jesus at his side, and in what is now the Lady Chapel there are angels shown against a background of blue tiles. Designs by the same artist, very similar if not identical to these, may be seen at Aylesford Priory: but the design above the main entrance, depicting the murder of St Thomas of Canterbury is unique. The ceramic work must have been completed at about the time of the church’s opening as Fr. Scott writes in the Notice Book for May 28th 1958, ”I hope the ceramics, the work of Mr. Kossowski, please you all. He may do more work inside the church if I can find the funds.” We have no correspondence from Mr. Kossowski, or accounts.
Of the opening of the Church on April 28th 1958, Fr. Scott wrote in the Notice Book:
“It was very encouraging to see the great numbers who were present at the Solemn Blessing and opening of this church on Monday last. I have had letters from non-Catholics who say how impressed they were with the beauty of the church and the function, especially the Pontifical High Mass.”
Fr. Scott concludes the entry in praise of the choir: he writes; “It was glorious.” This ‘glorious’ sound probably had much to do with the influence of Fr. Norman Swinton, who though appointed to Gillingham as a curate in the March of 1957, was made responsible for the Rainham section of the parish by Fr. Scott. Fr. Swinton, a convert to Catholicism, had formerly been a member of the ‘BBC Singers’, and he quickly established a choir of some standing at St. Thomas’ Church. The choir, robed in cassocks and surplices would process into the church with the priests and servers, and then, ranged at the back of the altar would face the congregation to sing. Our Sung Mass was celebrated on Sunday evenings as our resident organist, Nicholas Danby, a grandson of Charles Dickens, also played for the High Mass at the Carmelite Church in Kensington on Sunday mornings. (Mr. Danby subsequently became choirmaster at the Jesuit Church in Farm Street.)
The organ at St Thomas’ was built by J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd at the cost of £3,206 and was blessed by Fr. Scott on Wednesday January 20th 1960. On the same evening Fr. Peter Farmer, a fine organist, and the choir gave a recital, the first item on the programme being Benjamin Britten’s cantata “Rejoice in the Lamb”. From then on there was an organ recital every month given by a variety of distinguished recitalists including Barry Rose, organist at Guildford Cathedral; and Michael Bigg, organist at Canterbury Cathedral. With guest preachers the calibre of Fr. J.D. Chrichton and Fr. Bernard Bassett SJ, the church must have been something of a cultural haven.
Fr. Swinton’s oversight of Rainham was not official: but once St. Thomas’ Church was officially opened it became clear to Fr. Scott that a resident priest would be an asset; and Fr. Swinton took up his now famous (or infamous) residence in the Church Hall with ”Bosun” his Boxer dog as companion and protector. Not informed of this move the Bishop was understandably displeased when news of it came to his notice: but as it was a ‘fait accompli’ he allowed it to continue, providing suitable accommodation was found. It was Mrs Callahan who very kindly opened her home to Fr. Swinton. The Notice Book for June 26th 1960 records the “temporarily the priest’s address will be 2 Salisbury Avenue.” Fr. Swinton stayed there for nine months.
A site for a chapel-at-ease to be built at Twydall was acquired by Fr. Scott from Gillingham Borough Council on May 9th 1957, but it was not until August 1961, when we stood in danger of the site being compulsorily repurchased by the Council, that building work finally began. The footings were dug and the foundations were laid by the ‘Internationale Bouworde’, an Order of laypeople and religious from the Netherlands, which was founded after the 1939-45 war to repair or rebuild war damaged churches. The Order has since been dissolved. Parishioners also helped on the site, and several families offered hospitality; but as a group, they were accommodated in the hall, sleeping on camp beds. The plans for the church were available by the November of 1961, and the architect, as for St. Thomas’ Church, was Eduardo Dodds, but we have no correspondence concerning its building, its fittings or its costs. Eduardo Dodds died of cancer (still a relatively young man), during the building of this church and his partner, Kenneth White took charge. Fr. Barbyer was placed as an unofficial ‘clerk of works’, but he found it impossible to prevent the theft of bricks and other materials, and believed that many garages built in the Twydall area at that time were constructed of materials taken from the church site. The builders were a small firm, Nye & Son, and often days would pass without any work at all being done; but whether this was the sole reason for the church not opening until the Lent of 1964, or whether other factors were involved we do not know.
Fr. Swinton left us at the beginning of September 1961, just after work had commenced on the site at Twydall, and was replaced by Fr. James Petry who was officially appointed as ‘priest-in-charge’ at Rainham. Although officially appointed there was no Presbytery in Rainham and Fr. Petry took lodgings with Mrs. Lye at 59 London Road. Before coming to Rainham Fr. Petry had had a chequered career. Like Fr. Swinton and Fr. Curtin who came to us in 1973, he was trained and ordained at Wonersh in 1948 and worked in several parishes in the diocese before becoming a chaplain in the British Army in 1950. For services in Korea he received the M.B.E., awarded he said modestly, for bringing beer to the troops under fire. Fr. Petry was also a chaplain on ships going out to Australia carrying passengers on £10 assisted passages arriving at Fremantle in March 1957. Except for the eighteen months he spent in Rainham between 1961 and 1963, he has served continuously in parishes in Australia ever since. Fr. Petry was keen to maintain the musical standards set by Fr. Swinton at St. Thomas’ and spent a lot of time working with the choir. He would also take the young boys home after practice - all crammed into the back of his Morris mini-van.
Fr. Petry, though, is mostly remembered for introducing the Offertory Promise Campaign into Gillingham and Rainham. Mass attendance figures at Rainham had risen to almost 600, but the collection was averaging only £40 a week: and the debt on the church stood at £31,000. It was the level of this debt, Fr. Scott explained to Bishop’s House, that precluded Rainham being cut off as a separate parish. There was also the debt on Twydall. Revenue from the Football Pool started in 1952 was beginning to fall off, and according to Fr. Barbyer, repayment on bank loans amounting to £128 a week was having a very serious effect on living standards at Gillingham Presbytery.
The Offertory Promise Campaign was run with professional help during the summer months of 1962. The brochure, glossy for the time, featured photographs of the clergy at home and parish activities. It also set out very clearly and simply the financial position. The income of £12,000 over three years needed to be raised to £43,000 over the same period of time to be able to deal adequately with the debt on the Rainham and Twydall churches, which together, stood at £39,000. The Campaign was a huge and popular success. Demand for tickets for a celebration dinner held at the Drill Hall was so great that two such events had to be organised to cater for numbers. On the first Sunday the Offertory envelopes were used, the collection more than doubled to £85.14s. (85.70p) and rose to an average of £90 - £95 in the following weeks.
On Low Sunday, April 21st, 1963, the familiar cry of “No Parking on the A2” is mentioned for the first time: and on May 12th, 1963, an ‘Australian Style Social’ was held to say farewell to Fr. Petry and to meet our first parish priest; Fr. John Gleeson.
At this point a rather sad note creeps in. Fr. Scott did not want to lose Rainham. As early as 1948, eager to build Rainham up to parish level, and believing that his presence in Rainham would facilitate this; Fr. Scott had asked Archbishop Amigo for permission to buy 211 London Road and to reside there. Unfortunately, Archbishop Amigo interpreted this as a request from Fr. Scott to be appointed to Rainham as parish priest. At this time many senior priests were leaving the Armed Forces where they had served as Chaplains during the war years, and Archbishop Amigo mistakenly saw this as an opportunity to appoint one such priest as parish priest at Gillingham. Fr. Scott was incensed on being informed by the Vicar General of this misunderstanding and replied in a letter, withering in its tone, except for one sentence. He wrote:
“When the time is ripe, when Rainham can afford to be cut off from Gillingham and have parish status, I would not mind being its first parish priest, and build its church.”
Now, having spent more than thirty years building up a congregation and where he had so recently overseen the building of the church (to which he had given the handsome monstrance presented to him by the clergy of the Deanery on the occasion of his 50th anniversary to the priesthood), Fr. Gleeson was to be the first parish priest.
Bishop Cowderoy probably had some knowledge of this earlier episode, as in a report following a visitation in March 1963, he wrote congratulating Fr. Scott on the beauty of the church at Rainham, but added, “I am sure that you will be sorry to give it up – but after all, you did not build it for yourself.” When this report was written it was known, to the clergy at least, that Fr. Petry was to be succeeded at Rainham by Fr. Gleeson who was to be independent of Gillingham. Remarkably, even then, Fr. Scott did not appreciate that Fr. Gleeson’s appointment was actually as parish priest; and his reluctance to relinquish Rainham is made evident in correspondence between him and Bishop Cowderoy, who wrote in a letter dated April 6th 1963, “Fr. Gleeson must come as parish priest – not even curate-in-charge.” (sic)
Fr. Scott retired to Glenstal Abbey in Limerick in the October of 1963 and died there eleven years later at the age of 96.
FR. John Gleeson
Fr. Gleeson was a very active priest possessed of sound business judgement and much was achieved in Rainham during his ten years as parish priest. His time here also encompassed the momentous events of the 1960’s, which will go down in history as watershed years in the life of the Catholic Church. A Council, commonly referred to as ‘Vatican II’ was held in Rome between 1962-1965 and was to profoundly change thinking and understanding in the Church.
Another process of change that took place was that the Latin of the ‘Tridentine Mass’ gave way for a ‘New Order of Mass’ celebrated in the vernacular. Initially, the pace of change was very slow, and it was not until the First Sunday in Advent in 1964 that a small amount of English entered into the Liturgy. The four new ‘Eucharistic Prayers’, which gave an element of choice in place of the unvarying Roman Canon in the ‘Old Rite’, were introduced from June 18th 1969: and the New Order of Mass, in its entirety, came into use on March 1st 1970. The metamorphosis was complete. Catholics became active participants in the celebration of the Mass in a manner denied them since the early days of the Church.
Fr. Gleeson prepared the parish well to meet and accept all these changes and strongly encouraged the purchase of the New Mass booklets as each one became available. The purchase of Holy Week publications was also encouraged, for although the ceremonies had been restored to their original times from the Easter of 1956, the ‘Rites’ underwent several changes until they, too, were finalised in 1970.
Along with changes in the ‘Liturgy of the Mass’ came some small re-ordering of the churches. In St. Thomas’ the Tabernacle was moved from its central position on the main altar to the chapel in the north aisle decorated with Adam Kossowski’s ceramics of angels. The statue of the ‘Sacred Heart’ was moved from there to a position close by in the north aisle. The ‘New Rite of Mass’ required the priest to be facing the people, so until it was possible to move the marble altar forward, Mass was said from a temporary wooden altar placed just within the sanctuary.
In 1963 there was still no accommodation for a priest in Rainham and Fr. Gleeson, like Fr Petry before him, took lodgings with Mrs. Lye at 59 London Road but later moved to lodge in Hawthorne Avenue with two widowed sisters, Mrs Mabs Mills and Mrs. Doris Gould. Rainham was now a very large and flourishing parish with its boundaries set from the Darland Estate to Hartlip on the south side of the A2, and from Woodlands Road and the large Twydall Estate through to Upchurch and Halstow on the north; so the need for a Presbytery must have been very pressing. This was acquired in the January of 1964 when Fr. Gleeson purchased 69 London Road for, it was said, £5,000. A very fair price for such a property at that time.
Although the church at Twydall came within the boundaries of Rainham parish, it only ceased to be served jointly by Gillingham and Rainham in the September of 1965 when the Archbishop sent the newly ordained Fr. Matthew Neylon to Rainham as assistant priest. Until then, from the time the church had opened during Lent 1964, Fr. Patrick (Paddy) Porter, (who had been appointed parish priest at Gillingham on the retirement of Fr. Tommy Scott in the October of 1963), had celebrated Mass on alternate Sundays and had also taken the children’s Catechism classes. Fr. Neylon, whose appointment is the only time mention is made in the Notice Book of any assistant priest during Fr. Gleeson’s time here as parish priest, stayed until sometime in 1967: but once he left there was a veritable procession of assistant priests who simply came and went, until Fr. David O’Regan, appointed in 1969, broke this sequence.
Looking through the Notice Books of Fr. Gleeson’s years at Rainham, scarcely a week passed without some call for money, be it a fête, jumble sale or a raffle: and as soon as one event had passed there were appeals and pressure for the success of the next. However, these calls for money were almost inevitable. Our proportion of the combined debt on the building of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church and the Church at Twydall was set at £16,000, and our weekly collection, which averaged £95, was no more than that achieved at the time of the Offertory Promise Campaign.
The flagging Football Pool was re-organised (in Rainham only) in 1964, but it was never as successful as in the early days, and it was finally abandoned from the end of November 1971. A ‘300 Club’, suggested by the parish council to raise £1,000 required for the repair and redecoration of the hall, took its place. This ‘Club’ was modestly successful; but parishioners were slow to join and it was never fully subscribed.
Of great help to Fr. Gleeson was the ‘Rainham Catholic Ladies Club’, which was formed during the summer months of 1964.
This club had a very strong social dimension, but its members also organised the many fund-raising events so necessary to service our debts and to meet the very heavy demands being placed on so young a parish: the most pressing of these being the need for a primary school, the building of which had been decided upon at the meeting held in Rainham on November 14th 1954.
The Consecration Of St. Thomas Of Canterbury Church
The crowning moment of Fr. Gleeson’s time as parish priest at Rainham must have been the consecration of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church on June 11th 1970. At a time when it was still necessary for a church building to be free of all debt before consecration could take place, we in Rainham had achieved in twelve years what many parishes had taken 50 years to achieve. It also reflects greatly to the credit of Fr. Gleeson that an inherited debt of £16,000 was cleared in seven years.
The consecration took place on a most beautiful summer evening with the sun streaming in through the west window. Archbishop Cowderoy officiated at the ceremony which commenced at 5.30 p.m. This precluded the attendance of many parishioners, particularly those who worked in London; but such an early start was probably necessary as the consecration ceremony, which preceded the Mass, was very lengthy indeed.
Waitresses smartly dressed in uniforms of black and white, served sandwiches and cake in the hall after the ceremony. Tea and coffee were also served; but in keeping with Fr. Gleeson’s strictly held ‘Pioneer’ status, there was no wine.
Please find below the full history of our in church in PDF document format
| rainhamhistory.pdf |
